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3.5 Imitation of Death

Walter: "You can't just walk up to someone and kill them. Even in here."

Poor Birkoff. Working with murderers has its drawbacks.

The child suicide bombers and cloning plot felt a lot like "1984" crossed with "Brave New World." And the cages in Chernov's compound strongly resembled Section. Deliberate, I'm sure, because the message was that Chernov's operation and what Section does to its operatives is at heart the same.

Nikita's compassion for innocents and love of children actually helped her save the day. I was totally creeped out by the threat of medical experimentation, that Chernov could have sterilized Nikita, and even worse -- that Section wouldn't have stopped him. No wonder Nikita destroyed the materials in the lab. When Chernov said to Nikita, "You're ovulating," I actually shuddered. Of course, was sterilization really a threat if Nikita can never have children anyway?

Are there really a slew of young Michael and Nikita clones on level eight being raised to be perfect future Section operatives? (I thought at least one of the kids looked like Birkoff, too.) Where can they go with a plot line like this? In another twenty or thirty years, will there be another Michael and Nikita, imprisoned in Section and in love with each other?

I liked the B plot about Felix the abeyance operative trying to kill Birkoff more than the A plot. Birkoff's utter paranoia that Madeline was somehow testing him with Felix was totally justified. I don't think she was, but it was impossible to tell for sure. Birkoff looked especially young to me here, heightening the comparison to, say, Milan. Birkoff has more free will than Chernov's children, but it doesn't amount to much.

Michael was pretty much his taciturn self again. Loved this particular exchange, mostly for Michael's matter-of-factness and deadpan expression:

Michael: "What's the problem?"
Birkoff: "He threatened to kill me. What do you think I should do?"
Michael: "Don't let him."

Bits and pieces:

-- "Imitation of Death" is a take-off of a classic old book and movie called, "Imitation of Life." The plots are dissimilar, though, since "Imitation of Life" was about racism.

-- This is not the first time I've seen similarities to "1984." The world of Section is very Orwellian, in fact.

-- This episode might have worked better for me without the constant, annoying background score of children singing nursery rhymes off-key.

-- There was actually a comic moment, when Birkoff turned the corner, leveled his gun on Operations, and yelled, "Die, bastard!"

-- Chernov: "Nikita. A good Russian name, though usually given to a man." Which brings up something I've noticed but haven't written about. Why do Michael and Nikita almost always use their own names while undercover?

Complex and interesting, but distasteful. Two out of four stars,

Billie





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